Updates

We're just finally starting to recover from Daylight Savings over here.  It only took Daphne about a week to get back on track, but Christian was starting to think he liked waking up promptly at 6 A.M. and it's taken me awhile to convince him otherwise.  Fortunately the 5 o'clock wake ups only happened a few times.

Christian went back to his doctor so we could tell her that he's had NO REACTION to any of the foods we were reintroducing into his diet.  Can you believe it?  He was obviously sensitive to something, but it appears that his gut is now strong enough to handle it, whatever 'it' was, at least in tiny doses.  We're still gluten-free at our house, although no one has to cook that way for us.  You could say we are making sure our insides are healthy enough to handle any food that comes our way.  Our digestive systems are like steal traps of horror for all our food-related enemies.

food beware

I think Daphne is practically deaf.   Or if it is just the selective hearing of a preschooler, she's doing a great job of making me think she's practically deaf.  That girl says, "huh?" and "what you say?" more times than I think is normal.  The last thing we need is another doctor visit in our lives, so if she could work this issue out on her own that would be good and acceptable. 

David spent last week helping out at a police training in Salem, and instead of him staying at the police academy for the week or commuting from Portland, we all went and stayed in Albany.  David got to work a bunch of overtime (and don't feel badly for him, he was having a lot of fun) and the kids and I got to be entertained by family and friends while he was 'working' so many hours.   I say 'working' because he really was having a very good time. 

the kids pondering a future at Corban Univ.

I just started in on a new book.  It's my favorite kind; a type that I read with the book in one hand and a pen and notebook in the other because there is just so much goodness to take notes on and I want to remember it all. 

It's called Organized Simplicity by Tsh Oxenreider.  I'm loving it in part because our month of October became a month so full of things we needed to do that we all made it through a bit shell-shocked.  October is one of our favorite months and I feel like we missed it because of our too-full schedule.  One little tidbit I've taken from the book says, "Your hours and days and weeks reflect your priorities, and so does the space in which you live. As a family you're united for something bigger than each of you seperately, and you are all parts that complete the holistic family unit."

Every time we say 'yes' to something, whether it be to an activity or something we buy, we're saying 'no' to something else.  I buy something, so I just said no to putting that money into our savings for a down payment on a house.  I say we'll go to an event, so I'm saying no to time at home with the family.  It seems like we're saying 'yes' to too many things that aren't reflecting the goals we have for our family and a simplified life...and why are we doing this?  

I don't know why, but I do know that the goals for our family aren't to live the rat race.  We don't want to end each day exhausted, feeling like we were busy all day and yet accomplishing nothing.  We want our kids to love God and love each other, meaning we need to spend quality time together and quality time with our church family and people who have those same goals.  We want home cooked, nutritious food, meaning there needs to be time for proper grocery shopping, time to be home so the food can be prepared, and time in the summer for berry picking and garden growing and canning and freezing.  And by golly if I don't want a milk cow, meaning we've got to figure out a place to live where she can have some pasture.

Somehow we've got to organize our lives so that our priorities are evident in the way we live and in the house we live in.  I am excited for the challenge, and very excited to finish this book (which I will hopefully get to do before its due date next week).

Well, that was a 4 paragraph rant that kind of came out of left-field.  That's what you get when I read a good book, I guess.  















This weekend we're going to the Beaver game and we have a home group outing for the adults only (happy!!), and then it's Thanksgiving (in which David is working, boo) and then it's Christmas!  Daphne is SO very excited for Christmas this year, and also very excited for her birthday.  She tells everyone, even the UPS man, that they can come to her birthday.  I'm hoping her birthday won't be a let down when she realizes he is actually not invited.

Nor is the furnace repair guy, or the ant killer man, or any of the gals who work at Starbucks.  It's probably good to at least learn a person's first name before we invite them to any intimate family gathering.